This invention relates to ethoxylated sulfonium zwitterionic compounds which exhibit unexpectedly high clay soil removal even in very low built or unbuilt detergent systems and which are surprisingly stable under alkaline conditions. The invention further relates to detergent compositions containing the novel sulfonium compounds in combination with co-surfactants and/or builders.
While a variety of surfactant classes are known, e.g., nonionic, anionic, cationic and zwitterionic, none of the conventional types of detersive surfactants are known to provide the advantageous performance of the instant compounds. The shortcomings of the commonly-used surfactants are well-known, and such materials must be built and/or otherwise precisely formulated to provide good soil removal under a variety of conditions.
Efforts have been made to prepare specific types of surfactants for particular purposes and, in particular, zwitterionic compounds have been thoroughly explored and attempts have been made to tailor these compounds in a particular way which would provide especially useful detersive surfactants.
Such known zwitterionic surfactants have generally been based on a nitrogen cation and surfactant classes such as the ammonio-sulfates, ammonio-sulfonates and ammonio-carboxylates have been proposed. The analogous materials based upon a phosphorus cation have also been suggested, although very much less frequently.
While certain of the above mentioned classes of compounds have been found to provide useful detergent properties, they have not, for several reasons, enjoyed any substantial commercial success. One reason for this may be that questions have been raised regarding the environmental effect of materials containing nitrogen or phosphorus.
Also, such surfactants have been expensive to prepare commercially.
It is an object of the present invention to provide zwitterionic detergent compounds which are effective in removing particulate soil from fabrics, and which do not contain nitrogen or phosphorus.
It is another object herein to provide detergent compositions which can be used to cleanse both fabrics and hard surfaces without the need for builders or additives.